Williams-Sonoma Inc.

Corte Madera, Calif. – Gary Friedman, chairman emeritus of Restoration Hardware, has been named chairman of the board and co-CEO. Friedman, former co-CEO of Restoration Hardware, will serve with co-CEO Carlos Alberini.

CORTE MADERA, Calif. — Restoration Hardware is a company one tends to associate with high-end home furnishings, but the company is expanding into new territory. RH recently launched Hierarchy — an apparel, accessories and footwear brand — and has edited its executive leadership team as a result.

Corte Madera, Calif.  -- Restoration Hardware reported record financial results during the first quarter of fiscal 2013, including a net income of $2.3 million compared to a net loss of $1.3 million in the first quarter of the prior year. The company also named Richard Harvey, who spent 30 years as an executive at Williams-Sonoma, most recently as president of Williams-Sonoma brand, as chief merchandising officer of its RH Kitchen and Tableware line.

SAN FRANCISCO — Pottery Barn Kids, part of Williams-Sonoma’s brands portfolio, has launched its Summer Reading Challenge in partnership with PBS Kids. 

The challenge, which runs through August 26, is designed to promote a love of learning and literacy in kids and their families throughout the summer months. It also draws foot traffic into its brick and mortar stores, and is an exercise in brand awareness, as young children will recognize the brand and associate it with the reading challenge, making them potential future customers. 

San Francisco -- Parent company Williams-Sonoma said that its PBteen banner will open its first store in southern California, at The Oaks Mall in Thousand Oaks on Saturday, June 1.
 
The store will be anchored around a PBteen Design Lab, where teens and their parents can engage with the brand and its products by digitally creating a personalized room on a computer monitor. Using drag and drop technology, teens can experiment with different room configurations and color combinations and see it come to life on a television screen overhead.

Brooklyn, N.Y. -- Home furnishing retailer West Elm, owned by Williams-Sonoma, will open a store in King of Prussia, Pa., on May 16.

The 8,406.-sq.-ft. store will be the second West Elm store in Pennsylvania, following the Philadelphia store.

By Douglas H. Meal, David T. Cohen, and Lisa L. Rachlin, Ropes & Gray LLP

Retailers, like all businesses, constantly seek to learn more about their customers in order to serve them better. In Tyler v. Michaels Stores, however, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently ruled that a simple step taken by many retailers to help achieve this goal – collecting the ZIP codes of their customers at the point of sale – can in some circumstances violate Massachusetts’ consumer protection statute.
   

SAN FRANCISCO — Janet Hayes, currently the president of Pottery Barn Kids and PBteen, will become president of the Williams-Sonoma brand, effective March 20. She replaces Richard Harvey, who will be leaving the company on May 3, 2013, after 30 years of service.

NEW YORK — Yomari and Predictix will join forces to deliver merchandising and analytics solutions to large and midsize retailers.

Yomari is a leading independent professional services company focused exclusively on analytics, business intelligence and data warehousing for the consumer value chain. Its customers include Dressbarn, Gander Mountain, Petco, REI and Williams-Sonoma.